The Song of Steel
by Perfections-Cat
Summary: In a split second, the past can repeat itself. But Naruto finds that what was then does not play out perfectly in the now, and the grief that rises in its wake can be as viciously dispatched as a body in mid-battle.


AN: This was originally written for the LJ community narutooneshots (which is a brand new writing challenge community, and if you happen to be over on LJ, please check it out!) The first theme was 'mourning' over there, though it took me forever to figure out what I wanted to write for that. This piece happens to be the first time I've ever used an OC in any of my fanfiction works. I felt that the story would have had a far different feel to it had I chosen to use a character known to everyone from the Naruto manga/anime. So, I decided to create a character to keep the integrity of that feeling intact and inline for what I wanted from the story.

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"You did pretty well out there." A hand traced the line of the horizon, fingers following the thin strip of gold as it bled into the night sky. Naruto grinned and turned to face his young guard. "Guess that jackass actually knows what the hell he's doing."

There was a pause, followed by a slight shifting of stance. The uncertainty of youth beset by an uncomfortable strain of knowledge. ". . .Jackass, sir?"

Rubbing the back of his head, Naruto looked skyward for a moment, focused on the fading image of the moon, more ghost than solid fact of a presence. It was the kind of almost-there thing that made you want to test the validity of existence.

"Jackass. . .Sasuke. . .bastard of all things impossible," Naruto said with a smile, laughter coursing through every syllable. For all the years he had known the man, not once had their terms of affection changed. He was still _moron_, and Sasuke? Sasuke was still very much Sasuke.

As his amusement died, the smile lingering in shadow-form at the corners of his mouth, Naruto pulled his hand forward. It ran from the base of his skull up over the crest of his head and leapt, finally, from the cliff of his hairline out into the air. A finger poked at the mirage-moon haunting the sky.

"Ahh. . ." came the slightly embarrassed acknowledgment. The young nin cleared his throat lightly, tried to smile away his own awkwardness. "We uhh. . .we don't call him that."

"What do you all call him then?"

"Captain."

"That's it?"

"What else would we call him?

"You could try jackass."

The nin coughed, a watery sputter of a sound that ended with him capping his canteen. A sleeve was run across his mouth, sopping up the mess inevitably made whenever shock bit down. With a nervous little laugh, the young man asked, "But then what would you call him, Sir?"

"Oh. . .me?" An eyebrow lifted as Naruto turned with a sly grin to his companion. "Don't worry about that, Kei. I have plenty of names for him."

The grin, it turned out, was of the infectious variety. Kei felt his lips pulling high and wide, and in an effort to curtail the spread of it, he turned to laughter instead. Quiet but genuine, it had that beautiful ring to it that made Naruto laugh a little himself. The kind of sound the stars might have made had they not taken their vows of silence long ago. Setting his head back against the tree he was leaning on, Kei turned his gaze to the horizon, his laughter having settled into a deceivingly delicate smile.

"The two of you really get along well, don't you?"

Naruto gave his hair a solid ruffle. "I suppose so. . ." - a pause, eyes squinting just slightly as thought compiled the necessary memories - "I mean. . .We've been through a lot. Kinda natural, I guess. You either come to hate one another completely or. . .you get us."

There was a soft snort from the blond to end the statement. Light with incredulity but still holding a bit of the roughness that memories, worn from use (thoughts like fingers that roamed from page to page, night after night, to relive the best and worst of lives past), often lent to a sound.

You didn't just get one or the other when you had a history together with someone – love or hate. Naruto had learned that you either hated practically every bit of it, the love so thin and tenuous that it broke again and again, or you got a relationship that was for the most part balanced in its affections. Sometimes, you couldn't stand the sight of one another, usually when the past was dragged up from its grave to scorn the living for not letting it rest. But mostly. . .mostly, you found yourself glad that they were there despite everything, and that even in the worst of those fights, you knew you'd never want them to just walk away.

"I gave just about everything to get him back here. We damn well better get along."

Unable to help it, Kei found himself laughing again. Naruto chimed in a second later, and for the time being, all thoughts settled on that one easy feeling of camaraderie. Because the young nin's laughter sounded like life at its happiest, and Naruto couldn't help but be grateful.

"I think you do," Kei finally said. He sighed, content for the moment, as he watched the stars and moon dissolve. The sun was just starting to light up the horizon, a hazy sort of gold that was still too sleep-drowned to burn at its finest. But even so, the blues of night were already giving way. "Speaking of, he should be back soon, shouldn't he?"

Naruto, having pulled a piece of jerky from the small supply pack at his hip, was currently chewing on the strip as he studied his companion. There was a rise of his shoulders, a silent _Not sure, but I'm assuming so_. Though, it was true that Sasuke had said he would return sometime around sunrise. Not that there wasn't a plan B, but with the area as settled as it was, Naruto couldn't see any particular reason to rush off.

And the more he looked at Kei, the more he could see the boy wasn't that concerned about a hasty exit plan either. Actually, he reminded Naruto a bit of Sasuke himself in that moment. Alert, but looking completely relaxed. It was all in the boy's gaze. A bright gleam of anticipation, as if mocking the shadows that were creeping up underneath his eyes. He had an intelligent look about him, keen and slightly defiant, despite his mannerisms, which was where the resemblance ended sharply. Kind of like running smack in a brick wall blind.

Kei was polite. Almost too polite. Afraid to curse, to drink even. Yet, as the hours before the dawn had shown him, not afraid to kill when necessary. It was almost as if he tried to atone for that sin by cutting off the route to all the others. Naruto liked that about him though. Because it made him gentle in all the ways Sasuke refused to be.

It made Kei, Kei and in that kept him completely separate from Sasuke.

Besides, the boy had a smile that charmed more girls than Sasuke's looks alone had ever managed (a fact that made Naruto want to laugh sometimes - _with just a drop of honey I can lay your mountain of salt to waste_). Didn't look a damn thing like the bastard either – eyes as green as Suna's palm fronds, hair a rich mahogany though it was currently more red than brown thanks to the sun's favor. He would be taller than Sasuke too. Just needed a few more years, but Naruto could already see it.

"You really are a good kid, you know that?"

Kei blinked. The surprise was fresh on his face, his eyes relinquishing their intelligent glint in favor of a bright spark of shock. And then the faint flush of red that spilled over his cheekbones. "Thank you. . .Sir. . . .I think."

"Just take it," Naruto laughed. "I think I get now why Sasuke chose you over everyone else."

"You do?"

"Yeah. . .you're the farthest thing from jackass his company has to offer."

Kei smiled, the sort of smile that wasn't sure whether offense was to be taken or just pure amusement. But before he could collect a reply, concern stole into his thoughts, coated his senses with an electric meshwork of _alert_. He pushed away from the tree, kunai in hand, and stared out into the spread of forest behind them.

Naruto merely brushed a hand over his thigh, an eyebrow cocked in mild curiosity. It wasn't that he hadn't sensed the problem. It was that Kei had reacted as quickly as he had to the matter, and as far as Naruto was aware, there were only three other nin he was knew of who could pick up on an enemy's presence without the foresight to predict it. Pursing his lips together, he flicked open the lid to his shuriken holder.

"I mean no disrespect with this, Hokage-sama, but are you sure you should be fighting?"

Though quiet, there was iron in Kei's words. The solid confidence of a man that took his duty to heart and stood fearless in the face of it. In that moment, Naruto found himself frowning over that thought. To think that at sixteen one could be called a man because of the lives they all lived (and in that, he quickly found himself shaking his head because he would be damned if he started comparing himself to memories of that old pervert when he himself was only twenty-seven).

His eyes on the woods, Kei remained stock-still. It was only the slight tilt of the boy's head in his direction that let Naruto know he was waiting for an answer.

"Do you really think a few bruises will stop me?"

Glancing over his shoulder, Kei blinked at Naruto. "Sasuke only reset your shoulder an hour ago, Sir. And your ribs. . ."

Biting back a groan of impatience, Naruto pulled himself up straight and gave his injured shoulder a slow and careful roll. Pain pulled at the joint, but didn't prevent him moving. However, the range of motion was still limited, and when reason was taken into account, Nauto knew that it would take far more time to heal this than he cared to admit. But when Kei's eyes threatened to narrow with well-meaning defiance, Naruto gave the boy an authority-fortified glare.

"I can fight _just fine_."

Kei shifted his weight from one foot to the other. His fingers flexed against the metal of the kunai, the first sign of nerves the boy had displayed in the two days they had traveled together. With his eyes once more on the woods, Kei settled into the uneasy silence of one who felt he had stepped over the line.

Which was thoroughly agonizing if you asked Naruto.

"There's only five of them, and Sasuke will be here soon," he muttered, suddenly feeling chastised by Kei's defeated air (a strange thing really considering every ounce of the boy sat prepared to kill, and yet the soul of him exuded the broken air of a child wrongfully disciplined). "Save your worry for someone who really needs it."

Kei shifted again. A moment was spent spanning the void that had cropped up between them. Lines were redrawn. Voice soft, Kei finally replied, "I wasn't. . ._worried_, Sir. But I can handle five of them by myself."

There was no mistaking it - this kid was _definitely_ one of Sasuke's crew.

And Naruto would have laughed about that had he not needed to throw two shuriken out to deflect the two aimed straight at his head. The weapons met with the sharp chink of metal wounding metal. Two were deflected into the earth, one was lost to the woods spanning out to Naruto's right, and the last buried itself into the tree Kei had been leaning against only minutes before.

But the boy didn't even seem to notice the luck that had graced him. Already engaging the first of their attackers, Kei's focus was on the fight at hand. And yet, as Naruto dodged a kunai that sought to rend flesh, he could sense that that wasn't the only thing Kei was taking into account.

It was. . .startling, actually. Naruto could see the traces of Sasuke in Kei's movement. In the easy sweep of his leg, low along the dirt to force his opponent back. In the way his fingers gripped the kunai, then eased off at just the right second so that blade could greet skin. In the fire-bright intensity that graced the boy's eyes, flames flickering with every hit that landed, accurate and sure.

All while keeping tabs on the one person he was supposed to protect.

Kei didn't lose a single step. Not when the second nin joined the fight. Not even when the third leapt in from the branches above. And Naruto knew that that sort of grace under fire was only granted to those who went out with the intent to kill.

To those who accepted the possibility of their own end.

To the ones who slaughtered that possibility, having measured it for all it was worth.

The first attacker fell, kunai shoved ruthlessly through the neck, just as Kei pulled a dagger from its sheath and launched it at the second who had broken away to join the two others catapulting themselves at Naruto. The man stumbled, his knee crashing into the dirt. An arm jumped over his shoulder, fingers dancing about like blind street entertainers as they tried to locate the blade. Just a bit too low. Just a bit too deep.

Just a bit too slow.

A moment later, all movement ceased. Seconds after, the body fell with a soulless thud to the ground. Naruto caught the faint glint of a shuriken at the base of the man's skull. In that one brief flash of a moment, he remembered talks of chakra gateways and wondered if in fact there wasn't one for the essence of self to escape in those final moments. A breath departed from his lips. Naruto looked up just in time to catch a glimpse of Kei, pinning his third attacker to a tree, between the two bodies still rushing at him.

Despite the coming onslaught, Naruto stood his ground. Back straight, muscles tight. His opponents' steps were just seconds off, the pace staggered to ensure victory should one falter. A breath was drawn as he pulled his injured arm in close to his core. In the span of a blink, Naruto pushed forward, dipping low as his arm shot out to grab the wrist of his nearest attacker, a dark-haired nin that smelled of sweat and death. Rustic and coppery, like a blade left to rot in the sun.

His uninjured shoulder rammed into the man's torso, and before the sputter of breath ripped from the lungs could fully sound, Naruto was twisting them both around. Hand released wrist. The man's foot caught on his companion's.

As Naruto righted himself, his two opponents crashed into the base of a tree. Lips parted, allowing a pained groan to vacate the throat of the man who had taken the brunt of the hit. In the mess of memory-inscribed sound, Naruto thought he had heard the inevitable crunch of bone when it met an immovable force. But whatever pity he felt for the nin was saved for his companion, the very same man he had tossed to create the collision of flesh and forest in the first place - compassion in the form of a knee to the face.

A fist followed soon after. The knock-out far from clean, but in it, mercy reigned supreme. Turning his attention to his other attacker, Naruto shook his hand, then wiped his knuckles against his pants when it seemed the blood wouldn't just slide off.

The nin's eyes were glazed over, the expression vacant in the way only pain could make them. A low moan was slipping over his lips.

"Iwa, Sir. . ."

Sword tip at the man's throat, Kei stood ready to execute. Just a nod was all he would need. The whisper of an act to end a man's life. Sometimes, it was just that simple. It was enough to make Naruto hate the game of power.

"Just knock him out."

There was a pause, a slight passing of consternation over Kei's face, before the order was carried out. Not a single waver to his hand. Not a single glance back when the body slumped over. Instead, Kei kept his sights on Naruto, as if he were truly seeing the man for the first time.

For his part, Naruto squatted before the unconscious figure. He reached out, lifted the man's head as if the sudden kiss of sunlight might illuminate all the reasons behind the attack. It had been obvious enough, though, that these men were not the best and brightest in Iwa's arsenal of men. A fact that drew a frown to his lips. Naruto let the man's head drop.

Kei was standing off to the side still watching. His sword was sheathed, though his hand refused to relinquish its hold on the weapon. As if he expected the dead to dance because the prize was just that lucrative. With a shake of his head, Naruto turned his back on his former opponents and surveyed the damage.

Three dead. Two left without their wits. The frown refused to leave his lips, and instead, carved itself all the deeper as eyes watched the blood sink into the earth.

"Does it bother you?" The question was gently put with just a touch of curiosity.

"What do you mean?"

"Killing. . .Sir," Kei supplied softly, though there was a presence to his words. The manifestation of sin itself, and the regret that stemmed when blood was spilled because the options were just that limited.

Naruto shrugged. "It's what we're trained to do."

A pause, followed by a meeting of eyes. And in Kei's, Naruto could still see the innocence. Because there was a certain brand of pain that sprung to the fore in the eyes of those who killed and knew completely the damnation they piled upon themselves. It was the hope that thrived in the midst of blood and loss, as everything burned down and reality hissed that some sort of hell was just around the corner.

The sigh, sitting just behind Naruto's lips, was capsized by a smile. Defiant, and yet wearied by the need to be so. "We aren't the monsters we strive to be."

Naruto's words seemed to be the key to Kei's atonement. The corners of his lips lifted. . .fell. . .then rose once more reluctantly. As though overcome by a sudden bout of embarrassment, Kei turned his gaze to the ground, scoured it for any hint of proper protocol. Unsurprisingly, the only thing he stumbled across in his searching was a dagger half-sheathed. Poking it out of the way with the toe of his sandal, Kei finally gave the smile permission to claim his lips.

When he saw the gesture, Naruto couldn't help but laugh. Just a little bit. "You must get laid _all_ the time. . ."

Kei coughed. "It's not. . .not really like that. . .at all. . . .Sir. . . ."

Naruto simply brushed off the comment with a wave of his hand. However, his arm never reached his side. Instead, he found it in Kei's grasp, tight and compelling, as he was pulled towards the ground. His other hand pressed against the back of Naruto's head, encouraging the flow of movement towards the earth, and when their eyes met, Naruto could see the silent plea for cooperation and patience.

A branch crashed down somewhere in front of them. Naruto held Kei's gaze, an eyebrow raised.

"Our captain likes to use them when we train." An explanation that bordered on sheepish. Complete with a smile that tried to apologize.

Huffing out of amusement, Naruto shook his head, then exhaled as the blades of a large shuriken cut the air overhead. The weapon lodged itself neatly in the tree behind them, the cut clean and deep.

"Explains why you caught that two seconds before I did, then." Naruto pulled himself up slowly. "Man. . .He's a bastard even when he trains."

Kei let loose a rough, relief-ridden laugh. "Yeah, I guess so."

"What did I say – complete and total jackass," Naruto replied with a sharp nod to punctuate his take on the truth. He turned to look in the direction the windmill shuriken had flown in from, eyes narrowing and head lifting just slightly, like a wolf tasting the air. "We'll hold here."

"I don't see. . ."

"Sasuke will be here shortly."

Scratching at his head, Kei glanced around the small clearing with a look of obvious disbelief. The uncertainty of youth, of intelligence that bickered harshly with instinct. He took a step forward, lips parted for protest. "He can catch up, Sir."

Naruto shook his head. "Sasuke said he would be here. . ." – a finger tested the air with a poke, then landed on his nose – ". . .and he will be."

"How can you know. . ."

"It smells like fire."

Kei looked unconvinced and shifted from foot to foot with the unease of a predator turned prey. Ready for fight over flight, but wishing whole-heartedly for the silence granted by the right to live. Only when Naruto smiled, the gesture warm with experience, at him did Kei start to settle his nerves.

Even so, the young man kept a hand on his sword. Naruto could see the glimmer of silver just below the hilt, a sight that sent a rapid series of chills up his spine. The agitation that stirred those tremors seemed to pool around his shoulder, encouraging the pain to dance with jarring steps. He brought a hand to the joint and shut his eyes, hoping to soothe the injury with a heat-tempered touch and the familiar scent of flames on the breeze.

The hush around him was severed by the clean whisper of metal sliding from its lacquered confines. Naruto opened his eyes. A split second later, he heard the screech of blade cutting along blade. He turned to catch Kei pulling a small capsule from a pouch at his waist, the swish of a steel-grey tassel dangling from underneath the windmill shuriken and the glint of Kei's sword grinding against a kunai. Yet, for all the weight being thrown against him, the young man didn't move.

Couldn't move.

Naruto prepared to rush forward, his eyes darting quickly away from Kei's foot, locked in the stony grasp of the earth, to the boy's face. And everything he saw there – the smile that wavered, unsteady in its acceptance, and eyes that burned furiously with one thought, and only one, live! - rendered all motion dead. From the beat of his heart to the twitch that ached in his fingers, Naruto felt utterly sapped.

The small black capsule shattered against the earth. Light swallowed the scene. As he turned his face away from the sight, Naruto caught the flash of something dark diving down from the trees, straight into the fray.

There was a sharp cry that stumbled into a gurgle. The next thing Naruto saw was the figure of the man he had first fought, nose swollen and bruised, as he staggered forward then dropped onto his knees. His throat, however, was wet with red. Reminded him of the way water ran down the rock faces surrounding the village, streams springing from knife-thin cracks. Thin and glossy in their proof that life could spill from anywhere.

When the man fell, Naruto found his heartbeat once again. He exhaled heavily, a shaky sound that was soon overshadowed by a hitch of expectation. It curled around his stomach like a boa constrictor of anxiety, thick and powerful. Threatened to take every ounce of reason he had and turn it into something dark and frightful. Yet, with just the flash of ink on pale skin, it disappeared. But anxiety was like that – banished as easily from sight as a shadow-clone. All because the heart thrived on hope.

However, the smile he had prepared was cut down before it could blossom. Sasuke stood where Naruto had last seen the Iwa nin, his dark eyes narrowed. In his left hand, two swords – Kusanagi and a shorter blade whose hilt was wrapped in dark grey silk threaded with silver. Both oozed blood from their tips. His ANBU vest was splattered with bright crimson streaks, the imprint of a dying touch.

Sasuke's other arm was wrapped around Kei. The young nin's head rested against his commander's shoulder and fingers clung loosely to the bottom edge of Sasuke's vest. Fragile in their grasp. Naruto could see that much, as those fingers slipped a little lower when Sasuke tilted his head towards Kei's.

And though something urged Naruto to step forward, something even more primal warned him not to. Whispered that there were things he had no right to disturb, that there were moments that didn't deserve his touch no matter how many he commanded. It was a heart-shattering feeling, and standing there, the silent observer, was like crushing the shards into fine bits of dust.

Yet, stand there he did.

Naruto watched as Sasuke's lips parted, words whispered with care. Breath stirred the hair just above the young man's ear, and Naruto carved into memory the way the copper-brown strands shifted and settled.

Sasuke paused. Kei's fingers flexed, then fell. Again, Sasuke's lips moved. There was the pulse of a smile on Kei's.

And then, nothing.

For a moment, Sasuke simply stood there. Eyes shut, he breathed out against Kei's head. A long exhalation that took its time relieving the lungs of the pressure that had built up within them. Then, with an odd grace (the kind that was more human emotion than ethereal beauty), Sasuke lowered them both to the ground. Kei's body was laid out before him, and for a good minute, Sasuke knelt over the figure, bereft of all thought, all need for motion.

Unsure, Naruto took a step forward. Retracted it the moment Sasuke rose to his feet and swiped at the windmill shuriken with Kusanagi. Seconds later, a grey scabbard, tassel swinging, fell from its underside with a hollow thud. The sword that should have inhabited it was shoved into the dirt, blood still clinging to its blade.

"This," Sasuke growled as he sheathed Kusanagi, "is why you don't let them live."

His eyes burned with black fire, though it neither accused nor offered forgiveness. Rather, it was a look that spoke of what was and what could not be changed, and the moment Naruto recognized it, he felt a sharp stab at the center of all that he was. It was the sort of look that would cut out a piece of your soul just to show you exactly what you were. What you stood for and the price-tag that came along with those beliefs.

And in that moment, Naruto felt his own anger rear up, hot and enraged. "We aren't at war, Sasuke! What was I supposed to do, huh?! Slaughter every last one of them?!"

Sasuke was kneeling by Kei's side again. Fingers worked quickly to cut through the young man's sleeve. Once the arm was exposed, Sasuke traced the swirl of ink on his bicep. His fingers paused, lingering on the upper point of the mark. Tapping the edge twice, Sasuke gathered his thoughts, sorted through the emotions and struck straight for the core of all that mattered in this one moment. With a sense of determination that bordered on furious, he rose to his feet and pulled out several exploding tags.

All but two of the trees in the vicinity were marked for decimation. Each note was tacked to the bark with a kunai, the edges ground into the wood with an anger that was forced to give way to reason. And Sasuke knew that that was a sure-fire way to make it all the more potent. He only stopped when he reached Naruto's side.

Naruto eyed the other man warily. Ready to fight should it dissolve into that, and the irony of having to fend off the person who had promised to protect him did not escape him in the least. Rather, it brought a bitter smile to his lips. Raw with the pain of loss. "You said you would be here by dawn."

"I was doing my damn job," Sasuke shot back. "You are the one that insisted on meeting with the Raikage when you knew the situation he is in with Iwa!"

"My meeting had nothing to do with Iwa! No one outside of my advisers and his knew about this!"

A fist rose sharply from Sasuke's side, and on his face, Naruto could read the disbelief branded across it. Had this been any other time, he would have been pleased to see such depth on emotion coming from the other man, but in that moment, Naruto couldn't help think but how damn funny it was that the things you wanted always came at the least appropriate time.

"You place too much faith in your enemies, Naruto!"

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

But Sasuke was already walking back to Kei's body. He knelt once more, fingers landing lightly on the tattoo inscribed on the young man's arm. This time, though, when Sasuke traced that mark, smoke and flame curled up beneath his fingertips. Eyes narrowed, he stopped just long enough to snarl at Naruto.

"It means you can't save everyone, jackass."

Naruto charged forward. Steps heavy, forceful; each one searing anger into the earth. "What the hell are you doing to him?"

"What does it look like?"

He didn't need a definition for what Sasuke was doing. Could see, smell all too clearly what was happening. And there was something in that act, something wretched in the way the mark burned out of existence that made Naruto reach out and grab Sasuke by the shoulder.

In return, he found Kusanagi's blade at his throat. Sasuke was glaring, harder and sharper than the blade currently threatening him. And in that moment, it was more than enough to lure a miserable cry from Naruto.

"Why do you think I had him dress as a normal nin?" Sasuke asked quietly. He pulled the weapon from Naruto's presence, housing the sword once more, before resuming his previous task. His movements were slower this time, battle-worn and soul-weary. He traced the line of fire down Kei's arm, stopping just beyond his elbow. A canvas of flesh ruined for the sake of keeping secrets.

And yet. . .

Rising silently, Sasuke held out an exploding tag. Hesitation stilled Naruto's hand, and a flash of alarm rushed over his face. However, Sasuke's arm remained steady, unforgiving even, as it held the offering just before the blond.

"When we walk past these two trees, I want you to turn and place this tag on the one to your left."

The alarm gave way to disquieted sorrow. "So, you're just going to leave him. . ."

"I just need his hitate-ate, his weapons. When we get. . ."

". . .going to bury him just like that. . ."

". . .far enough away, I'll send a. . ."

". . . even though he was yours. . ."

". . .summons to Kiba. He'll be able to retrieve the bod. . "

When Sasuke fell silent, this time it wasn't because Naruto had cut into his statement. Inaction filled the void instead, and with it came the familiar strain of doing nothing when everything around whispered of the need to move. To survive. To find the remedy to a pain that could wait out months before it fully bloomed into something beautiful and deadly and ripe with the kind of poison that could kill a man's soul.

It wasn't until Sasuke shifted closer that Naruto realized he had been holding his breath. He exhaled heavily, the sound more like a sigh than the simple parting of air from the lungs.

"If you mourn for every one of them the moment each one falls. . ." Sasuke whispered against his cheek, ". . .you might as well condemn the entire village."

Naruto hissed harshly. He had never once forgotten that Sasuke was a man of fire, but sometimes, the ANBU captain surprised him with new ways to burn the things around him. And it hurt, _every fucking time_, the bastard did it. But before he could issue a reply Sasuke was gone.

For the first time in years, Naruto felt the bitter pang of loneliness. Despite the belief, as solid and steady as the rock cliffs around Konoha, that Sasuke would not abandon him again, he couldn't help but feel isolated. Cast aside because he lacked the necessary cruelty. And for that, Naruto wanted to hate Sasuke.

He wanted to hate him for resorting to protocol. Wanted to hate him for just deserting the scene when he was a damned genius fighter. But mostly, Naruto wanted to hate Sasuke for the truths that spilled over his lips as easily as blood ran from a gash.

Moments later, Sasuke reentered the clearing. Though not before tossing another body before his own. Naruto watched as the figure hit the dirt, and instinctively, he found himself by Kei's side. Striving to protect what he couldn't, and yet how emotion lured him into the act anyway. If only for the sanctity of a life lived in service – bloodied or not.

Yet, as he regarded the scene playing out before him, Naruto couldn't help but note the unfair advantages granted to his ANBU captain. Against this man, who was probably nothing more than a scout. It was no better than watching a wolf toy with a fledgling. Because Sasuke was quicker. Stronger. And the abilities in his arsenal far surpassed those of any Naruto knew.

There was a cold efficiency in the way Sasuke operated in those moments. Not giving his opponent an inch. No room for escape, just the solemn realization that this was what the end was for those who insisted on dealing in death. And just as Naruto cried out for Sasuke to stop, Kusanagi was stripped of its sheath and blade met flesh for. . . .Naruto didn't even know how many had already fallen that day.

"Put that tag on the tree," Sasuke growled out as he pulled his blade free. The man fell to the floor, yards away from the rest of his companions. "We need to leave here now."

Naruto stalked out, met Sasuke in the center of devastation itself. The other man pulled to a halt, his eyes a solid sort of black, as if he had encased all of his emotional capacity in one beautifully polished onyx box. When Sasuke said nothing, did nothing, Naruto pulled his arm back, formed a fist, and punched the other man. But there was nothing of satisfaction in the hit, not even when the blood dribbled down from Sasuke's lower lip.

There was just a blinding brand of grief that twisted up with anger and regret and all the other little miserable scraps of emotion Naruto found himself forced to deal with in that one moment. "You didn't have to do that!"

Bringing a hand up to his face, Sasuke swiped his thumb along his lip. He opened his mouth, testing the motion of his jaw, then ran his tongue over the smear of blood. With eyes narrowed, he leaned in with the methodical grace of a man who had seen, had done more than he cared to admit to.

"Mercy is bought with the blood of all that you love," Sasuke murmured hotly into Naruto's ear. "You should remember that."

"You're really going to leave him?" A question posed with all the rawness of grief. Naruto could practically taste the acid bite of acceptance on his tongue. Teeth ground together as Sasuke pulled back and headed for the tree he was set to mark. "You're really just going to leave him here. . .He was one of yours, Sasuke!"

Sasuke paused, took another step, and then halted completely.

"Perhaps you haven't noticed," – and all Naruto could see was blood and fire in the glance that found him – "but Kusanagi sings a beautiful eulogy."


End file.
